The Masked Man Lurking in the Shadows?!

Three days later, Hidden Leaf Village.

The news that Sasuke had defected, and had gone over to Orochimaru, swept through the already anxious village like a tsunami.

In the temporarily repaired conference room of the Hokage Building, the atmosphere was oppressively heavy.

"Absurd! This is utterly ridiculous!" Homura Mitokado slammed a palm onto the conference table, his graying beard trembling with rage. "Uchiha Yuan can't even keep control of the last brat left in his own clan, and he has the gall to say he let him go on purpose? That makes him an accomplice to treason! Shikaku, he must be investigated immediately! We can't let him run wild in the village any longer!"

Koharu Utatane also echoed him with a cold expression. "Exactly. Sasuke carries the Uchiha bloodline. If his body falls into Orochimaru's hands, the Hidden Leaf will face a threat even more terrifying than the Chunin Exams. Yuan's actions are pushing the village into the fire."

Shikaku sat beside the Hokage's seat, rubbing his throbbing temples, his face full of bitterness. Looking at these two old advisers who were still thinking with their outdated mindset, he felt only sorrow.

"Honored advisers..." Shikaku had just been about to explain the current situation.

Bang!

The newly replaced oak door of the conference room was once again kicked open with extreme brutality. This time, the door panel flew straight over the long conference table and smashed into the wall behind Homura Mitokado with a crash, showering his head with splinters.

The entire conference room instantly fell deathly silent. Several Anbu in charge of security nervously gripped their sword hilts, but none of them dared draw.

Yuan swaggered in. He did not even spare the two old advisers a proper glance, and directly pulled out the empty chair at the head of the table that belonged to the Hokage, then sat down with a domineering sprawl. His legs crossed arrogantly, his black leather boots resting just like that on the edge of the conference table.

"Who was it just now who said I should be investigated?" Yuan's voice was not loud, but in the silent conference room, it rang out as harshly as thunder.

Homura Mitokado swallowed and forced himself to stay calm. "Uchiha Yuan, don't get too arrogant! This is the decision of the elder council. You let an important fighting force of the village escape, so you must give us an explanation!"

"An explanation?" Yuan let out a soft laugh.

Swish! No one saw him make any movement at all. A black afterimage mixed with lightning flashed through the air and vanished.

Rrrip—!

The hard solid-wood conference table in front of Homura Mitokado had actually been cut cleanly in two down the middle. The cut was smooth as a mirror, and the pungent smell of scorched Lightning Release chakra still lingered on it.

No one knew when the short blade in Yuan's hand had left its sheath. Its tip was now pressed against Homura Mitokado's nose, less than half an inch from his eyeball.

"I'll give you an explanation right now." Yuan's abyss-black eyes stared at Homura Mitokado, the brutality in his gaze making the battle-hardened old adviser tremble all over. "I was the one who let that kid go. Where he runs off to, who he mixes with—I decide that. If any of you feel upset about it, you can draw your swords and come cut me down right now. If you don't dare draw, then shut your mouths."

Yuan slowly sheathed his blade. The crisp clang seemed to strike against everyone's heart.

"I'll say this one last time. I don't need you useless trash to be convinced by me. I only need you to obey." Yuan stood and looked down over the conference room. "As long as you don't provoke me, I can't be bothered to deal with the Hidden Leaf's messes. But if anyone dares keep whining behind my back, that dead Danzo will be your example."

No one dared speak. Only after Yuan's footsteps disappeared at the end of the corridor did Homura Mitokado's legs go weak, and he collapsed back into his chair, cold sweat soaking his back.

The faint voices of resistance inside the Hidden Leaf were forcibly crushed by Yuan with the purest, most primitive violence.

At that moment, in the Old Uchiha Clan Compound.

Aunt Mihui was holding a rag, carefully wiping the pillar at the entrance to the schoolhouse. An eight-year-old girl ran over and timidly tugged at the corner of Mihui's clothes.

"Auntie Mihui... will Big Brother Sasuke still come back? Everyone's saying he's a traitor..."

Mihui put down the rag, crouched, and gently rubbed the little girl's head.

"Don't listen to outsiders talking nonsense." Mihui pointed to the nearby room with the wooden plaque marked "Sasuke" hanging on it. The door was tightly shut, but the room had been cleaned until there was not a speck of dust. "He just went out to learn some skills. The wind and rain outside are fierce. When he gets hurt enough, he'll naturally miss home. I'm keeping this room for him. As long as the clan compound is still here, he'll have somewhere to return to."

On the rooftop.

Yuan stood in the shadows, taking in everything that had happened below.

Two hidden guards in black night gear, diehard loyalists selected from the surviving Uchiha elites, knelt on one knee behind him.

"My lord. It has been confirmed that Sasuke has entered the Sound Ninja Village's sphere of influence," one hidden guard reported in a low voice. "Do you need us to protect him from the shadows?"

"No." Yuan's gaze was cold as he looked at the distant sky. "Let him climb that mountain of blades himself. Orochimaru is no pushover. If he wants to seize power from that poisonous snake's mouth, there's no way he'll do it without shedding a few layers of skin. You only need to keep your eyes on his location from far away."

Yuan paused, the corner of his mouth curving into an almost imperceptible cold smile.

"Let him train properly. When that Mangekyo Sharingan has fully matured... I'll go pick him up myself."

The turmoil in the Hidden Leaf seemed to have temporarily calmed, but the whirlpools hidden in the shadows of the ninja world were churning wildly.

At dusk on the third day after Sasuke entered the underground ruins of Sound Ninja Village.

On a cliff at the outskirts of Sound Ninja Village, wind and sand filled the sky.

Space suddenly twisted in a spiral like a vortex. A man wearing a black cloak patterned with red clouds and an orange spiral mask appeared silently at the edge of the cliff.

In the single right eye he exposed, the Three-Tomoe Sharingan slowly rotated.

It was Uchiha Obito.

He looked down at the hidden entrance to Sound Ninja Village below. Under the mask, his voice carried a dark yet amused smile.

"The intel Zetsu sent back really wasn't wrong... that guy Uchiha Yuan not only turned the Hidden Leaf upside down, he even personally drove his own clansman into Orochimaru's lair."

Obito extended one hand covered in a black glove and clenched the air lightly.

"Letting go of an avenger who awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan. Uchiha Yuan... what exactly are you scheming?" Obito murmured. "But it doesn't matter. That child named Sasuke—the hatred burning in those eyes is practically identical to Itachi's back then... no, perhaps it's even purer."

Obito turned around, his figure once again slowly swallowed by the spatial vortex.

"There are more and more pieces on the board. Nagato's capture plan should be sped up as well. As for you two brothers... don't disappoint me."